A Variant on a Variation

Following my friend’s advice, the piano part has been cleaned up a bit, with a short intro added for good measure.

A Variation

Long ago, before there were computers to distract me, I played the violin. I pulled it out of the closet recently, got it tuned up, bought a copy of Suzuki volume 1, and started playing again. For many weeks, it sounded awful and the neighbors are no doubt thankful I close the windows before putting bow to string.

As a diversion, I wrote this:





It’s a variant on one of the tunes in the Suzuki book, which makes it relatively easy for me to play. I took it to a friend of mine who plays piano, and for the first time in a couple of decades someone else heard me fiddle. She did not clasp hands to ears, but did say the piano writing was a bit clumsy and complicated for such a short and simple tune.

Thematic Material

The first subject uses two strings of notes:


and


I interleaved the two sets and fiddled with the octaves to get this:


Adjusting the rhythm to something more interesting produced these two and a half bars:


Overlapping on the b-flat, the next three bars place the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th notes of the interleaved string at the beginning of each bar:


Two extension bars follow, ending with A – D – B – E straight from the string:


The whole is thus:


For harmonization, I borrowed La Folia’s base line, transposed to D


resulting in this straight-forward opening:


The cello overlaps a repetition of the theme, passes it to the viola, who passes it up to the second violin, then returns it to the viola, all without commentary (that will come later):

String Quartet in D Minor – The Plan

This will be in three movements, the first in sonata form. The first subject thematic material will do the usual tonic to dominant, followed be an unstable transition more or less in or on the dominant. Also, the second subject material will be, as usual, in the dominant, with a short coda to bridge to the development. The development will be based either on the first subject alone or in combination with new themes; the second subject won’t show up.

The second subject won’t appear in the recapitulation either. After the first subject, there will be a stable transition to an expanded version of the exposition’s coda.

The second movement will be either ternary or rondo form, with the “A” section being a variation of the first subject. The contrasting section (or sections) will need to be completely new thematic material, or at least sound completely new.

The final movement will also be in sonata form, with its first subject being a variation of the original first subject, making the whole work a kind of variation on a theme and variations form. The second subject reappears for the first time since the opening movement, more or less intact. Towards the end of the development, the first subject will appear on the tonic as a false recapitulation while the real recap will ignore the first subject all together. The second subject finally gets its time in the tonic, and a coda will probably wrap things up.

Sonata in G – Third Movement Complete

The second half of the trio, starting in bar 48, intertwines a couple of lines, maintaining the overall melancholy mood.

Listen here.



It stays in A until the last two measures (61 and 62); a bit of baroquishness. The first part of the trio is then repeated without repeats, if you take my meaning.

Sonata in G – Third Movement Trio

The aural poke in the era is gone; no more trill on the high D in measure 29. And the trill in the next bar has been replaced by an upper mordant, echoing the end of the second subject, recapitulated, in the opening movement (lower mordent, upper mordent, trill). The trio is turning out to have the triste character with which the minute started. Instead of being in the dominant (A major), it is in the parallel minor (D minor). So far it touches briefly on A major, but seems more interested in A minor. The contrapuntal character of the second half of the minute is also present in the second half of the trio. You may also notice the motive at the beginning of the trio (A-F-E-D) is first tightened up (A-G-F-E), then progressively turned upward in bars 40 – 42 and briefly leaves the ground in 43 (I think the aviation term is ground effect).